Sarah Kolker is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and community organizer whose work bridges public art, personal narrative, and community healing. A Philadelphia native and graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Moore College of Art and Design, Sarah has spent over two decades building creative, socially engaged spaces for youth and communities in Philadelphia, Jamaica, the San Francisco Bay Area, and New York City.
As a teaching artist with Mural Arts Philadelphia and a member of the 2019 Art21 Educator cohort, Sarah specializes in youth-designed murals and participatory art-making in public schools, where she collaborates with teachers and students to reimagine shared spaces. Her artistic practice weaves together elements of nature, ecology, family history, and storytelling through murals, mosaics, mixed media works, and collaborative pieces with her children. Her projects often honor pollinators, local landscapes, and ancestral connections, reflecting her belief in art as a living, evolving medium for memory and transformation.
In addition to her visual art practice, Sarah is passionate about plant-based food and mindfulness as tools for nourishment and healing. She has worked as a chef and mindfulness educator, offering workshops and professional development on art-integrated wellness practices for schools, nonprofits, and creative professionals. Sarah also directs jkid4all, supporting Jewish families of color, and has collaborated with nationally recognized artists and community arts organizations including Favianna Rodriguez, Isaiah Zagar, Groundswell Community Mural Project, and The Laundromat Project.
Through her work, Sarah invites others into creative, restorative experiences that celebrate beauty, complexity, and collective resilience. She continues to teach, make art, and build community in Philadelphia and beyond.
My work is a living reflection of layered memory, ecology, and collective experience. Through murals, mosaics, mixed media, and community-based collaborations, I create spaces where stories of place, healing, and resilience can take root. I’m drawn to the details often overlooked — the wildflowers pushing through a city sidewalk, the quiet resilience of pollinators, the textures of worn surfaces, and the deep histories held in our landscapes and communities.
No single medium can fully capture what I feel, so I move fluidly between materials and forms. Color, texture, and imagery become a kind of language — one that invites viewers to look closer, to reconsider what’s familiar, and to imagine new narratives. Much of my work emerges in collaboration with youth, community members, and my own children, embracing a participatory process that honors both individual voice and collective vision.
I believe art holds the power to transform not just walls and public spaces, but the people who gather around them. By integrating art, nature, mindfulness, and cultural memory, I aim to foster connection, healing, and a sense of belonging in the communities I work with. Each project is both a reflection of its moment and an invitation to imagine what comes next.
“Hope I’ve Lost the Key; Do you Have it?” kolks 2006
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